To Ruin
All hail! inexorable lord!At whose destruction-breathing word,The mightiest empires fall!Thy cruel, woe-delighted train,The ministers of grief and pain,A sullen welcome, all!
With stern-resolv’d, despairing eye,I see each aimed dart;For one has cut my dearest tie,And quivers in my heart.Then low’ring, and pouring,The storm no more I dread;Tho’ thick’ning, and black’ning,Round my devoted head.
And thou grim Pow’r by life abhorr’d,While life a pleasure can afford,Oh! hear a wretch’s pray’r!Nor more I shrink appall’d, afraid;I court, I beg thy friendly aid,To close this scene of care!When shall my soul, in silent peace,Resign life’s joyless day—My weary heart its throbbing cease,Cold mould’ring in the clay?No fear more, no tear more,To stain my lifeless face,Enclasped, and grasped,Within thy cold embrace!
Words in this poem
- delighted a.
- Endowed with delight.
- sullen a.
- Lonely; solitary; desolate. Wyclif (Job iii. 14). [OE. solein, solain, lonely, sullen; through Old French fr. (assumed) LL. solanus solitary, fr. L. solus alone. See Sole, a.]
- despairing a.
- Feeling or expressing despair; hopeless.
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- joyless a.
- Not having joy; not causing joy; unenjoyable.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To Ruin is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns, Project Gutenberg ebook #1279; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Robert Burns, To Ruin, in Poems and Songs (1786–1796), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1279, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/burns-poems/to-ruin.html, id L03020.
Form and metre
To Ruin is 28 lines in 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%). 96% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 6.8 syllables. 1 line ends on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 --ABBA lord · word · fallA · trainB · painB · allA
- 2 ABABCDCD eyeA · dartB · tieA · heartB · pouringC · dreadD · black'ningC · headD
- 3 AA-BB-CDCD-E-E abhorr'dA · affordA · pray'r · afraidB · aidB · care · peaceC · dayD · ceaseC · clayD · more · faceE · grasped · embraceE
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| All hail! inexorable lord! | 8 | ···/˘˘˘· |
| At whose destruction-breathing word, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| The mightiest empires fall! | 8 | ·/˘˘/˘˘· |
| Thy cruel, woe-delighted train, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| The ministers of grief and pain, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| A sullen welcome, all! | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| With stern-resolv’d, despairing eye, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| I see each aimed dart; | 5 | ····· |
| For one has cut my dearest tie, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And quivers in my heart. | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Then low’ring, and pouring, | 6 | ····/˘ |
| The storm no more I dread; | 6 | ······ |
| Tho’ thick’ning, and black’ning, | 6 | ······ |
| Round my devoted head. | 6 | ··˘/˘· |
| And thou grim Pow’r by life abhorr’d, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| While life a pleasure can afford, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| Oh! hear a wretch’s pray’r! | 5 | ····· |
| Nor more I shrink appall’d, afraid; | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| I court, I beg thy friendly aid, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| To close this scene of care! | 6 | ······ |
| When shall my soul, in silent peace, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Resign life’s joyless day— | 6 | ˘/·/˘· |
| My weary heart its throbbing cease, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Cold mould’ring in the clay? | 6 | ······ |
| No fear more, no tear more, | 6 | ······ |
| To stain my lifeless face, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Enclasped, and grasped, | 4 | ···· |
| Within thy cold embrace! | 6 | ····˘/ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.